Adjustable watch-dial



H. L. SHAW. I ADJUSTABLE WATCHDIAL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 22, 1919- 1,375,470. Pdwnted Apr; 19, 192 1.

WMQLW UNITED STATES HARRY L. SHAW, OF LORAIN, OHIO.

ADJUSTABLE WATCH-DIAL.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Apr. 19, 1921.

Application filed September 22, 1919. Serial No. 325,464.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY L. SHAW, residing atLorain, in the county of Lorain and b'tate of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Adjustable atch-Dials, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to watches and has for its essential object the provision of means for setting the watch backwardly or forwardly one hour without disturbing the hands. Setting the watch backwardly or forwardly an hour is an incident to time changes, such as traveling from one time zone to another, and results in inconvenience, such as inaccurate settings.

Another object is to provide means, for setting the watch backwardly or forwardl an hour to conform to time changes, whic1 may indicate at once that the watch has been so changed, and which may eliminate the inaccuracy of moving the hands.

A more specific object is to accomplish these objects by the use of simple and efiective mechanism adapted to be cheaply manufactured and capable of being embodied in existing watches, by reason of which the likelihood of inadvertently changing the time is eliminated.

A further object is to so arrange the watch embodying my invention, particularly relative to the hour and minute ordinals and stationary and movable dials, as to L produce a pleasing and artistic efiect.

My invention is more fully described in connection with the accompanying drawings and the essential characteristics are summarized in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a watch embodying my invention; Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the watch set forward one hour; Fig.3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the watch set backward one hour; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary side elevation and Fig. 5 is a section taken in the plane indicated by the line 55 of Fig. 1.

Describing my invention by the use of reference characters to designate its parts, 1 indicates a watch casing, 2 the stem, 3 the crystal and 4 the detachable ring in which the crystal is carried. The hour and minute hands, 5 and 6, are connected to their re spective spindles 7 and 8.

Directly beneath the crystal is rigidly mounted a dial which consists of an outer ring 9 connected by strips 11 to an inner disk 10. The outer ring 9 carries the standard minute ordinals graduatingi'rom O to in a clockwise direction and the disk 10 carries two sets of minute ordinals, one set being graduated from O to 30 in a clockwise direction and the other set being graduated from O to 30 in a counter clockwise direction.

Directly beneath this outer rigid dial is rotatably mounted a dial 12 which carries the standard hour ordinals, so spaced that they come directly below the cut-out portions 13 between the ring 9 and the disk 10 of the upper dial.

The connecting strips 11, are so spaced that each one will come midway between two of the hour ordinals on the movable dial 12. Should the dial 12 be inadvertently slightly moved, this arrangement of the connecting strips 11 will enable one to see this 7 at a. glance.

The spindles 7 and 8 project through holes 14 in the rigid and movable dials,

' these/holes being suflicientlv large to insure the free movement of the spindles. A tongue 15, attached to or integral with the dial 12 and which normally tends to spring slightly upward, projects through a slot 16 which extends part way around the under side of the ring 4. Notches 17 18 and 19 are cut in the upper face of the slot 16 to receive the spring tongue 15, thus locking the dial in the desired position.

In operation, my watch is used as fol lows: Assiune a person hving in a zone where central time is used, uses my watch.

He will have it set as shown in Fig. 1, the tongue 15 being in the notch 18 and the hour ordinal 12 on the movable dial being in line with the zero marks on the stationary dial.

If he goes cast, into the zone using eastern time, he depresses the tongue 15 and slides it around the groove 16 until it springs into the notch 19. This looks the dial in the 7 position shown in Fig. 2, the hour ordinal 1 on the movable dial being in line with the zeros on the stationary dial. If he goes into the zone using western time he locksthe tongue 15 and the notch 17. This brings the dial to the position shown in Fig. 3, the 7 hour ordinal 11 on the movable dial being in line with the'zeros on the stationary dial.

The time is read as follows: The hour is read from the movable dial and is indicated by the short hand 5 and the minute is read from the stationary dial and is indicated by the long hand 6. In Fig. 1. the watch reads 2:28. In Fig. 2 it reads 3:28 and in Fig. 3 it reads 1:28.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a watch, the combination of relatively movable superimposed dials, the movable dial carrying standard hour numerals, the stationary dial carrying two sets of minute numerals, said minute numerals reading from fixed points and consisting of inner and outer circles on the fixed dial,

and webs connecting the inner minute circle with the outer minute circle.

2. In a watch, the combination of a movable dial carrying the standard hour ordinals and rotatably mounted, a stationary dial carrying two sets of minute ordinals, one 'set graduated from O to 60 in a clockwise direction and the other set being divided, one half running clockwise from 0 to 80 and the other half running in a counter clockwise direction from 0 to 30.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature.

HARRY L. SHAW. 

